
ae 
whose records this year justify such action. Those certified by the 
Commission are certified on a probationary basis and, therefore, are, 
if employed, eligible for reinstatement in subsequent years or for fur- 
iough at the end of this year's work and restoration to the rolls next 
season This is certainly an advantage worth taking into account, 
Since it eliminates entirely the difficulties which we had last year 
and the year before in securing Civil Service approval of individual 
appointments. 
This discussion may well leed into a general consideration of the 
Whole Civil Service question. There are those to whom any restriction 
Of personal choice seems a very heavy burden. To such persons the 
whole Civil Service principle is repugnant. They think that the man 
in immediate touch with the work knows more about it than any one else 
and that he should be free to select his own assistants unhampered by 
any limitation imposed by an outside agency. This view, while plausi- 
ble, is not necessarily sound. The individual making the selection cer- 
tainly is not in position from his knowledge of the whole available 
field of material to say that the man whom he may wish to appoint is 
better qualified than anyone else who could possibly be secured. The 
Civil Service Commission has had at its disposal candidates selected 
from a very much wider field. The Commission would be the last to con- 
tend that its examiners never make mistakes; but, on the whole, candi- 
dates are rated with a very high degree of accuracy and the Commission 
never refuses to entertain objections to an eligible whom they have 
certified when such objections have a sound basis and are not based 
simply on preference. 
Before condemning the Civil Service system its opponents within 
the service should consider its relationship to them personally. This 
angle has, doubtless, been considered by employees of long experience, 
but it may not have suggested itself to newer appointees. It is a 
sound maxim that one shculd not accept the benefits of any system and 
at the same time be unwilling to assume such burdens as it may place 
upon him. Admitting that the Civil Service system does in some cases 
work inconveniences and even hardships, how many of us would be willing 
to go back to the system of employment which existed in the Federal Gov— 
ernment prior to the adoption of the Civil Service principle? It as 
one thing to demand the privilege of hiring and firing our assistants; 
“it is quite another to place ourselves in a position of being hired 
and fired at the whim of some one above us. Pricr to the passage of the 
Civil Service law every change in political administration was attended 
by a turnover almost beyond the comprehension of those of us who have be— 
Gome accustomed to Government personnel policies under Civil Service. 
Under the old arrangement no matter how long a man might have been in 
service or how well he might have performed the duties of his position 
he was subject to removal in order to make a position for some deserv— 
ing worker within the party fold of an incoming administration. Under 
any condition, and especially in troubled economic times like those 

